Recent developments in digital technology have spurred the development and deployment of digital video broadcasting services. The digital video broadcasting services not only broadcast high quality video programming, including high-definition (HD) programs, but also provide the ability to broadcast data including electronic program guide (EPG) data. Digital broadcast programs are typically provided by satellite broadcasters, terrestrial broadcasters and cable broadcasters. More recently, digital broadcast programs have also been deployed via the Internet Protocol (IP) by major telecommunication provides.
Video broadcasters have traditionally distributed video broadcasts to viewers using a variety of broadcasting standards, including the analog National Television Standard Committee (NTSC) standard. More recently, with the constant expansion of the number of video broadcast channels, HD video broadcasts and provision of data (including EPG data), all of which have placed a premium on bandwidth for transmission, the distribution of video broadcasts has been achieved via digital standards, including the Advanced Technical Systems Committee (ATSC) standard. Other digital standards which have been used include the Moving Picture Experts Group H.262 (MPEG-2) standard, the H.264 (MPEG-4) standard and the Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) standard. While the foregoing standards provide for in-band transmission of EPG data with the transmission of the video programming, typically EPG data has been provided out-of-band from the video programming by third-party aggregators of programming schedules, such as Tribune TV and Gemstar.
Digital video broadcasts are transmitted or distributed from the aforementioned video broadcasters to an end user's digital set top box (STB) which decodes the digital video signal for display on a video display device (e.g., television). The digital video signal may be received by the STB via a satellite dish, a coaxial cable, a telephone line (including digital subscriber line (DSL)), Ethernet, and the like. As described above, the EPG data may transmitted in-band with or out-of-band from the digital video signal being transmitted. Typically, satellite broadcasters and cable broadcasters have allocated respective carrier frequencies for receiving events or requests from the STB (including requests for EPG data) at two-way digital head ends and transmitting non-video related data (including EPG data) to the STB. As described hereinabove, such EPG data is typically obtained from the third-party aggregators of programming schedules.
Recent advancements in digital video recording technology in set top boxes have further incorporated digital video recorder (DVR) functionality into the STB for recording digital video broadcasts to a digital storage medium (e.g., hard-drive, optical storage, and the like) and playing back the recorded digital video broadcasts to the video display device. Further advancements in video recording technology have yielded the virtual DVR, where video head ends provide digital video recording functionality to the STB. The DVR functionality operates using the EPG data for scheduling the recording of particular video broadcasts.